Proper Coffee produces cutting-edge beverages

Noah Hayden travels the country with his band Mission 6, and has brought back a Southern California vibe to his own coffee roastery, Proper Coffee. Here, customer Noah Gray relaxes with a well crafted cup.(Photo: Aimee Blume / Special to The Courier & Press)Buy Photo

As an Evansville native who travels the country and world with his contemporary Christian band Mission 6, Noah Hayden sees a lot of trends taking shape before they reach the Midwest. There was one he felt passionate about bringing back to Evansville-- proper coffee.

“I was a coffee connoisseur and every time I was in a big city with the band I looked up coffee places, both franchises and local spots,” said Hayden. “The coffee at the new wave local spots blew my mind. I was tasting coffee like I'd never had it before. It was so light, sweet, amazing. ”

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Now Proper Coffee is roasting their own beans in the way that Hayden determines best brings out their special qualities, so you may purchase it at the shop and brew your own at home.(Photo: Aimee Blume / Special to The Courier & Press)

He would visit the most cutting-edge coffee “labs,” and ask and learn everything he could about their coffees, methods of roasting and brewing. He researched and studied on his own, and he experimented with beans and brewing at home.

His frustration was he couldn't find the right kind of beans in Evansville and no coffee shops were brewing the way he wanted to drink it. So he decided to open his own shop. Two years ago Hayden opened Proper Coffee on Evansville's east side. Two months ago they began roasting their own beans.

The crux of the new wave coffee movement is staying true to the flavor and character of the beans. There is no choice of dark or light roast Guatemalan coffee, for example. The coffee roaster experiments with each bean and decides which level of roast most perfectly brings out the natural characteristics of that particular coffee. That, then, is how they roast it, and no other way.

“We choose coffee and decide how to roast it based on the region where it's grown and the process in which the beans are extracted from the cherry or fruit,” said Hayden. “Some coffees go through a very natural process and are dried with the cherry still on, which imparts a fruity flavor to the beans. One that we have tastes so much like blueberry some people ask if it's flavored. There are processes where the fruit flesh and the sticky substance (called honey) on the bean is washed off with water before the beans are dried, and somewhere the flesh is taken away but the sticky “honey” is left on. That gives a sugary, caramelized flavor upon roasting.”

In general, lighter roasts are much favored over the darker roasts, because the darker a bean is roasted, the more of its own subtle flavor nuances are lost.

After a coffee is roasted, the brewing process is also very particular. You might have heard the term “pour over” and thought it was just a way to make drip coffee by the cup.
Hardly. Although it's true that ground coffee is placed in a container over a cup and hot water poured over to drip through and into the container, this technique requires skill and patience.

“Pour overs make very clean-tasting coffee with no ashy flavor, but it's really about the barista being able to visually watch how things are developing,” said Hayden. “After you roast it, coffee changes every day and develops as time goes on, so it's different every time you brew it. In a pour over, we control the time, the temperature of the water, the coffee to water ratio. The barista wants to get the best coffee from those particular beans in that particular cup.”

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Proper coffee's spiced latte is as delicious as it is beautiful, with a smooth, lighter-roasted Brazilian espresso and a touch of fall spice.(Photo: Aimee Blume / Special to The Courier & Press)

You'll also find Japanese Kyoto cold brew towers at Proper Coffee. This type of coffee is made when drops of water from ice held in the top compartment of the tower slowly, slowly, drip through the coffee grounds, run through endless glass tubing, and finally into a collection container below, about six hours from when the process started. The icy brew process means no heat is present to draw out bitter or acidic flavors in the coffee.

On the other side of the counter at Proper Coffee is the espresso machine. Far from your average 90's midnight-black espresso powder, Proper Coffee treats their espresso beans like any other, choosing a big, chocolaty Brazilian coffee that is actually best showcased in a somewhat dark roast for the espresso drinks. Lighter beans are also brewed under pressure on the espresso machine to highlight different aspects of their character in a planned way.

New in the shop this week is a top-of-the-line Slayer espresso machine, and Hayden couldn't be more excited.

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Proper Coffee's coffee apple soda is an invention of Hayden's that combines espresso, apple cider, a touch of honey and sparkling water over ice. Unusual and delicious!(Photo: Aimee Blume / Special to The Courier & Press)

“These are the best espresso machines you can get,” he said. “You can actually control the water pressure as it is forced through the beans. So you can pull a shot at lower pressure, then halfway through the pull move the paddle in such a way that you change the water pressure, so each shot, even made with the same beans, can taste different. If the same beans are ground and divided into two portions, one pulled at high pressure and one pulled at low pressure, each would taste like different coffee.”

Although Proper Coffee concentrates on pure coffee, they do offer some espresso drinks and even a couple house-made syrups to enhance their creations.
Don't miss the classic spiced latte, a smooth drink with beautiful foam art on top, or the unusual and delicious coffee apple soda, which combines apple cider, espresso, honey and sparkling water.